“Some things are bigger than yourself. I wanted to bring it back to where it was in the 80s and 90s and I wanted it to give something back to the community North or South. I wanted to bring a big tournament back to Ireland to help people and thankfully people have come — their support has been amazing.

“Part of every ticket sold goes to the Foundation and towards the great causes we support and that is important.

“Over the four years we’ve been able to achieve pretty much everything we wanted to, which is great.”

The newly married McIlroy will be accompanied by his wife Erica on his return home this week as they settle into wedded bliss.

He smiled: “It’s been fantastic, we’re 11 weeks in so it should be good at this point. It’s been incredible. It’s a great time in our lives. We had a wonderful weekend in April in Mayo and everything went off without a hitch.

“It’s fantastic. We’re in the middle of trying to buy a house in Florida and talking about the future and everything is really, really good.